Review of KLM flight from Bucharest to Amsterdam in Economy

Welcome onboard this flight report from Bucharest Otopeni to Amsterdam Schiphol on KLM ! 

Flight information

Aircraft : Boeing 737-700
Registration : PH-BGQ
Aircraft age by the time of travel : 12 years
Flight Number : KL1376
Flight Time : 2h26
Seat : 17A
Departure Gate : 12

Check in

I did the checkin via the app directly on my phone the day before departure. At the same time you get the chance to choose a seat within the regular economy seats. Upfront seat with more comfort cost around 15€ more, and if you're a flying blue member there is a small discount, so you might win a few euros here. 

Upgrade in business class costs 115€ but not so much worth it for intra european flights. The only difference being the meal, the free middle seat and the Skypriority. Anyways I am travelling for business purposes so I can't just book an upgrade like that..

Departure Airport

I left Bucharest city center 3h hours before departure because I've been told that the traffic can be pretty heavy. So taking some extra buffer time. Plus I am not familiar with the airport so I don't know how busy it is. Let's be careful.

About being careful, one should definitely be with the Ubers there. On arrival I took already an Uber and he took a longer way resulting in making it twice the original announced price.. So keep an eye on the road and the map during the drive. He just told me that via this road it would be faster. Yes but way more expensive at the same time. But the guy was very nice and sounded trustworthy. Beginner mistakes..

In the end it took me 35 minutes to reach the airport from the city center.  

The taxi dropped me in front of the departures, there is a lot of people and the airport is not too big. I was there at 15:55 and was happy to see that they have self check in counters. I looked at the panel but no checkin number was assigned.. In the end it I couldn't print the luggage tag at the self checkin. No idea why.. I'll have to wait until they assign a check in counter.

A few minutes afterwards the number was announced so I made my way there. About ten minutes after I was in front of the agent who exchanged less than 10 words with me. Efficient yes, but not very friendly. 

It resulted in me being 1h45 minutes too early at the airport.. But you never know what can happen. 
Here's a view from the main terminal building. 

I walked a bit outside and shortly before 5pm I went to the security screening. Very old style here. Boxes have to be picked up in the middle which results with the queue being a mess. But it didn't took too long, after 10 minutes I was through.

After this I ended up in a huge corridor pointing towards the gates, but no idea which was mine.. The lady at the checkin counter didn't say it. And they don't have screens.. I chose to go right and then let's see… Finally I see some screens and I find out that my Gate will be number 12 today. So I was on the right side. 

First view on the air side after passing security. 

Also a very interesting livery on this A320

I arrived then in the main terminal building, very very old school. And with the A/C not working so well. So it's pretty hot in here. It's also not too big and pretty busy. Didn't had a look at the duty free since it's anyway the same prices everywhere and this one didn't look too attractive.

And at the end of the building there are the non Schengen gates.

Downstairs you have the Ryanair gates, and a very very very fancy smoking area..

And here is the Gate 12 where we will be departing from.

A small A320 From Qatar Airways passing by before taking off to Doha

Boarding

Shortly before 17:30 our Boeing 737-700 is landing from Amsterdam.

The taxi took a lot of time so the boarding got a few minutes delayed. The gate agent made an announcement that they would try to make the boarding as quick as possible in order to reduce the delay. And that he expects an overall delay of 10 to 15 minutes. Very nice I have to say ! Nowadays for such a small delay usually nothing is said.

Crews are also changing for this flight but only pilots are standing at gate. I wonder where the cabin crew is. Do they change only the pilots ?

The gate agent asked many times to checkin the hand luggage's since the flight is full, and some people did. Not too many. He ended up also being the one to bring them to the ground agent. Pretty impressive the way he deals alone with the whole boarding procedure while keeping regularly the passengers informed. 

In the end he started the boarding at 17:55 with the zones 1 and 2 being the business class and the sky priority. As always with AF/KLM a lot of passengers have the sky priority.. But well I am zone 3 so directly behind.
A few minutes afterwards the zone 3 was called. We had to board on the right side of the gate even though the left was empty. So he just changed the computers in between. Processes …

I went then through the glass gate and let me tell you. It was VERY WARM, so the airport building was just a warm up.. 

Of course while entering the plane they didn't had the A/C on either so it was pretty hot inside too. But at least they had the good idea to close the window shades.

The cabin is the usual very old KLM one. Only positive point about it is the standard seat recline which makes them very confortable. 

The Leg room is okay, meaning my knees are not touching the seat in front.

The seats are even equipped with the inflight radio ! Old school. (Of course it's not working anymore since years).

At 18:15 the boarding is completed and we are ready to go.

taxi and take off

It takes a few more minutes and finally at 18:25 with a 20 minutes delay we pushback from the gate. The temperature in the cabin still being very high. The cabin manager says to turn it on above our heads, but the flow is veeeeery low.

The captain makes a short announcement, announces a flight time of 2h30 minutes. We then taxi towards the runway and at 18:32 we are holding short runway 08R.

Take Off power set

And take off ! With the view on a few Blue Air oldies parked here 

Inflight

Roughly half an hour after departure it's snack time. We get offered the usual KLM sandwich, this time tasting good ! And some drinks. They also offer beer and wine but I stay with coke. 

As the flight goes on, we cross a lot of other planes going in the opposite direction. I already saw on the ground in Bucharest that this is a very busy route for the flights going towards the Emirates and Asia. So a lot of A380s..

I guess I took the wrong number at the seat lottery this time… All the passengers seating near me are annoying. The guy next to me is stressed as hell and keeps on shaking his legs, the guy on the aisle is talking very loud about business stuff with a colleague seating in front of him. You know that nobody cares right ? And the guy in front of me reclines the seat fully make my living space very narrow.. That's where I regret easy jet where their aircrafts don't even offer this possibility of reclining the seat. So no problems there. Still 1h30 to go…

A lot of air to air during this flight ! Very enjoyable ! Pity that there's no wifi to check flight radar..

About one hour before arrival the second service is starting. We get a little piece of apple cake together with drinks. To my surprise the cake tastes quite good ! I was already very surprised to have a second service !

And finally that's the time where the guy seating in front of me chooses to put back his seat straight. Yaay !

Approach and Landing

At 19:35 Amsterdam time we start the descent towards Schiphol.

As we are descending a cabin crew member comes to me to give me some information about the departure gate and time for my connecting flight to Berlin. That doesn't happen too much either nowadays ! I flew a lot through AMS with KLM with short connection time and I never had this. So very much appreciated. They announced the arrival gate being D72 and the next gate for my connecting flight is D84. Shouldn't be too far.. The flight is even 10 minutes delayed, giving me a short buffer to reach the other gate.

At 19:59 local time we land (pretty roughly) at Schiphol on runway 18C. Thanks god not 18R otherwise it would take ages to reach the parking stand as the runway is pretty far away.

At 20:06 only one minute behind schedule we arrive at the gate.

And back to the looong corridors of Schiphol on the way to reach the gate for my flight to berlin. 

Arrival Airport

And that's it for this report between OTP and AMS !
Thanks for reading me :)